Youth arrest with fake gold coins in Madurai

Madurai: A youth who allegedly cheated bullion
merchants and jewellers by selling fake gold coins was arrested, police said today.

They said Marappa (26) from Bellary district in Karnataka had been arrested with 200 gms of fake gold coins and cash to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh here.

The modus of operandi of Mariyappa`s gang was to introduce themselves as workers involved in old building demolition. They would claim that they struck a treasure of gold coins but were not in a position to sell them in Karnataka.

They would also send a genuine one sample coin weighing one gm. Then they would ask the buyer to come to their place at Bellary, where also they would give one sample genuine coin for being tested again and then sell the fake coins with a condition that they would open it at the lodge where they were staying.

Narayanan, a jeweller in Madurai had purchased coins worth Rs 1.5 lakh at Bellary. However, he found all the coins, except the sample coin, to be mere alloy polished to look like genuine gold.

Police who registered a complaint from Narayanan. A team led by Inspector Malaisamy set a trap posing a jeweller and asked a gang member to come to Madurai, promising to buy large quantity of gold. They arrested Marappa and team had rushed to Bellary to arrest the other gang members.

The gang had cheated a several persons in Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Salem and Erode, police said.